


A Garden in Imruk

by Rosriel



Series: A Tribute from Imruk [6]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Fluff, Historical Fantasy, M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-18
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-17 00:00:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,417
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28839771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosriel/pseuds/Rosriel
Summary: Aleci's outing with his son lead to more than one surprise.
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: A Tribute from Imruk [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2072850
Comments: 5
Kudos: 13





	A Garden in Imruk

Finne was distracted when he woke up that morning, tapping his fingers on the table in a staccato rhythm. Even Allian’s blabbering chatter didn’t garner the same attention as it usually did. Edon was too busy doing scribbling something in his notebooks to notice.

“ _Something on your mind?_ ” said Aleci.

“Hm?” said Finne, “Oh, _nothing._ ”

Nothing with Finne could mean everything.

“ _Can you take Allian with you today?”_ said Finne, “ _I want…”_ he trailed off, biting his lips.

“ _A day to yourself_?” said Aleci and Finne nodded.

“ _Alright.”_ said Aleci, turning to Allian, “ _How about that, would you like to spend a day with me?”_

Allian stared at him, blue eyes wide, “Pater, pater.” he said clapping his hands and splattering bits of oatmeal over Aleci’s face.

“That’s lovely.” said Aleci, wiping at his face, “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Finne had mentioned in passing that Imruk was more beautiful in spring, and that was true, even if he’d only spent two springs in Imruk. The dreary white blanket that covered her during the winter was now replaced by a blanket of green, various sprouts poking from the ground. It could be anything, Aleci wasn’t a gardener. Allian make a spluttering noise of protest when he carried him outside without Finne, blinking rapidly in what Aleci knew were the beginnings of furious tears.

“Hey, hey, don’t start.” said Aleci, “Look, it’s a pretty bird!” he pointed at a sparrow.

The sparrow was then promptly pounced on by a cat. It flew away in the nick of time, and Allian clapped his hands in delight. “A cat!” he screeched, “Cat, cat cat!”

“Yes, it’s a cat. We have one at home too.” said Aleci, making to move on, but Allian strained his little body towards the black cat, making whining noises in the back of his throat and pointing.

Curse Smudge and his descendants.

The cat lead them to what Aleci thought was an abandoned wall, it paused as it sat on it, staring at them with yellow eyes.

“ _Go up_ _!_ ” Allian demanded, eyes wide and fixed on the cat, “ _I want cat. I want cat!_ ”

Finne would personally gut him if he dropped Allian while attempting to climb over a crumbling wall. “ _Give me a second._ ” he said, “ _Look at the cat, look at the cat._ ”

He ran his hand across the wall while Allian looked on, blabbering and pointing at the cat who still stared at them from its perch on the wall. Sometimes he wasn't quite sure what it was that his son was saying, at the very least he didn't ask Finne, like Kaeso did, which tongue Allian was speaking. It took him awhile but he found what he was looking for. A door, and while the lock of it looked very old, it wouldn’t take too much effort to pick at the lock. Aleci smiled triumphantly when it creaked open, he shifted Allian on his other arm, walking inside.

“Huh.” he said.

The first thing he noticed were the abandoned, crumbling trellises. There were some abandoned pots, as well as rusty gardening tools.

“I think,” he said to Allian, looking around at the budding rosebushes, “we may have discovered your avia’s garden.”

“Avia's garden.” agreed Allian, his eyes on the cat who now jumped down from the wall.

He squirmed in Aleci’s arms, and, knowing the tantrum that would result if he didn’t let him go soon, Aleci placed him down at the cleanest patch he could find. His son immediately began crawling clumsily towards the cat. It tolerated Allian’s clumsy pets, curling its tail around one of his son’s legs.

Aleci glanced around, curious. Perhaps, Finne would appreciate a flower? If they were alive that is, they did look alive. He stepped towards one and experimentally, scratched at its stem with his fingernail. He saw green after the dead layers were removed.

“Say, Allian, how about-”

It was all thanks to Aleci's newfound new reflexes that Allian didn’t tumble headlong into the thorns.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright.” he said, when Allian gave a startled cry as he was pulled roughly away from Aleci’s near death by tongue lashing, 'you don't throw children, your own children, like a ball' Finne had snapped and the tirade went on and on for what seemed like years, 'he enjoyed it' Aleci had defended himself weakly and to that Finne had scowled and stalked off with Allian, “What were you looking at hm? Can you show me?”

He thought Allian would point to the cat, but his son’s eyes were fixed on something shining on the brown rose stems.

“Pretty.” Allian declared.

“Pretty…” agreed Aleci, staring in puzzlement, then looking down at the cat that was twining itself around his ankles, “Did you know of this?”

The black cat blinked at him and said nothing. Of course it would, how would a cat know anything of roses and rings growing through them?

“Stay here.” he said to Allian, putting his son down again, far away from the rose bushes but still within his eyesight.

He pulled out a wooden rattle from his pouch to distract Allian and he could hear Allian rattle it happily while Aleci took out a knife to cut away the thorns, then the budding rose stem from its bush. The ring fell onto his hand and was safely stored in the leather pouch after a brief cleaning with his tunic. There was an emerald on its surface, a cleanly cut one, but the ring itself was richly decorated. He glanced surreptitiously towards Allian, and breathed a sigh of relief when his son didn’t seem to notice. From experience it was best to keep Allian away from small shiny things.

“Why don’t we go for a stroll then, hm? See more cats? _More cats?”_

Allian perked up at this, holding out his arms towards Aleci. He giggled gleefully at the rose when Aleci handed to him, putting away his rattle in the exchange, and made to put the rose bud into his mouth. He spat it out, nose wrinkling in disgust, before discovering hat he could more easily get Aleci's attention by using it to point at things and proceeded to do so happily. His unbridled enthusiasm must have scared off half the small animal population of Imruk before they returned home.

“I have something to show you.” said Aleci when he returned to their house.

“Is that a rose?” said Edon curiously, eying the stem in Allian's hand, “What’s so special about that?”

Finne was quicker to make the connections, “You found my mother’s garden?”

“That’s correct!” said Aleci, deciding to forgo telling him Allian’s near tumble.

“Did Allian fall on the thorns?” said Finne taking Allian from Aleci and examining his face.

Curses.

“No.” said Aleci firmly.

Finne scoffed.

“ _Mamaí_ has something to tell you.” Edon announced.

“Oh?” said Aleci, fumbling for his pouch, “I have something to tell you first.” He pulled out the ring with a flourish, “Look at what I found!”

He’d thought Finne would be pleasantly surprised, but his green eyes widened, and then he was blinking rapidly.

“Finne?” said Aleci, concerned, “Are you alright?”

“It’s…” Finne coughed, wiping at his eyes, with his free hand, “It’s my ring.”

“Oh.” said Aleci, “Well then, would you… would you like to wear it now?”

He made to hand the ring over to Finne but was stopped by Edon saying, “You’re supposed to go on one knee.”

“What?” said Aleci, “Who told you that?”

“ _Everyone knows that.”_ said Edon smugly.

“Fine.” said Aleci, and Edon nodded gleefully as Aleci got down on one knee, _“_ Oh _, Finne, will you marry me?”_

“ _Now you can tell him the news.”_ said Edon, when Aleci placed the ring on Finne’s finger.

It was perhaps best that he was already on his knees, thought Aleci. He wasn’t sure who was laughing harder at his reaction, Finne, Edon or Allian who copied whatever everyone did.

“You’re pregnant?” he said, in disbelief, after he pulled himself up from the ground.

“You suggested we have all the children in, as you put it, one go.” said Finne.

“I didn’t think you’ll take it seriously!” exclaimed Aleci then, “Well? Are we expecting a boy or a girl?”

“A girl.” said Finne.

He thought of the firefly bright memories he had of young Laria and beamed.

“Pater’ _s doing it again_.” muttered Edon to Finne.

“ _Leave him to it._ ” Finne replied, “ _He can’t help that he smiles too widely._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I referenced a couple of events from the one-shots I've previously written for a Tribute in Imruk. You don't have to read them all of course, but it all ties together if you did.


End file.
